Loans scheme to help create 'sense of pride'

The South Australian Opposition hopes federal measures enabling people in the APY Lands to buy household appliances will help promote respect in the wider community.

The No-Interest Loans Scheme (NILS) has been expanded to include many regional locations across the country, including communities in the APY region.

The Opposition Leader and Liberal Aboriginal affairs spokesman Steven Marshall says the loans mean people can buy items they thought they could not afford.

He says this has benefits in the home and community.

"We know in low income families in Adelaide we've seen the NILS scheme be extremely good at creating a sense of pride that they've got their own property and also a sense of achievement in basically taking out a loan and paying it back over time," he said.

He is confident the federal scheme will have more participants than a smaller-scaled state scheme already in place.

"The APY Lands is an area which is in desperate need of help and it's great that the Federal Government has recognised this," he said.

"Their schemes are always audited, they've got a commission that reports to Parliament six-monthly on all of these schemes, so we hope that that will put greater focus on the scheme so that there's greater uptake."